A Franklin County court tried to tell federal immigration agents where they can make arrests. Now the DOJ is suing.
The Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, Ohio issued a rule last week barring ICE agents from making arrests at or near the courthouse without a judicial warrant. The problem is straightforward: no municipal court holds that authority. The federal government moved to block the rule Monday, filing suit with language that left little room for interpretation.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate stated the administration’s position directly. “This type of rule obstructs federal law enforcement and facilitates evasion of federal law by dangerous criminal aliens, despite Congress’s direction that federal agents detain and remove them,” Shumate said. He added that federal agents have “routinely and safely conducted arrests” in courthouses nationwide, including that specific building, and that the DOJ is committed to protecting what he called “that important federal prerogative.”
As originally reported, the DOJ also made a practical case for why courthouses are actually reasonable places to carry out enforcement actions. Security screening is already in place at courthouse entrances, which reduces the risk of flight and limits danger to officers and the public. By blocking arrests there, Franklin County’s rule effectively forces ICE into less controlled environments, making enforcement more hazardous, not less.
The context matters. Franklin County is home to the second-largest Somali population in the United States. The court’s rule reads less like neutral administrative policy and more like a targeted shield for a specific community, a sanctuary measure wrapped in judicial procedure.
The pattern is broader than one county. Local governments across the country have been building a network of enforcement-free zones through sanctuary city policies, courthouse protection orders, data-sharing restrictions, and non-cooperation mandates. Each measure is presented as a local administrative decision. Together, they create spaces where federal immigration law exists on paper but cannot be applied in practice.
Federal authority over immigration is not a gray area. The federal government holds complete jurisdiction. No municipal court can declare that jurisdiction void within its ZIP code. Franklin County does not get to opt out of federal law any more than any other local government could nullify a federal statute it finds inconvenient.
The Trump administration has been executing on a clear electoral mandate. A single recent ICE operation in Virginia and Maryland alone resulted in more than 1,300 arrests. Franklin County now joins New Jersey, California, New York, and a growing list of jurisdictions testing how far they can push back against federal enforcement before the courts shut them down.
The DOJ filed Monday. The legal answer is coming. In the meantime, federal immigration enforcement continues, court order or not.